Instagram has become a cornerstone of many brands’ social presence, driving profitable traffic to landing pages, growing conversions, and building an engaged audience.
If your Instagram presence isn’t quite as robust as you’re hoping, it might be time to learn how to sharpen up your strategies for getting real, organic followers on Instagram. The larger your audience grows, the more opportunities you have to engage with users and create unique experiences for them.
The organic distinction is important: sometimes brands take the easy way out when trying to get more Instagram followers. Pay for likes and follower sites are everywhere, but these shortcuts are never worth it, as the Instagram algorithm regularly gets updated to weed out paid, low quality accounts and interactions.
Not to mention, the number on your Instagram following ultimately means nothing if it doesn’t represent an engaged fan following that makes purchases, visits your landing pages, and advocates for your brands with friends and followers. Start building your presence up the right way with these tips on getting more Instagram followers.
12 Ways to Get Instagram followers
1. Optimize your Instagram account
Before you set out figuring out how to gain followers on Instagram, one of the most important steps is to have your account fully optimized. Think of your brand’s Instagram bio as the “homepage” to your account.
Without a bio, image captions, a proper username or profile image, how will people know the account belongs to your brand? It might seem obvious, but on Instagram your bio and image help form the foundations of your brand identity. The link in your bio is your one spot to drive Instagram traffic to your site, so optimizing your account is essential.
If you’re uncertain where to link, try marketing or product pages that relate to specific keywords, hashtags or campaigns on your Instagram account. Linking to your homepage is OK–but why not give users a cohesive experience when moving from your bio to a site? This has led to the popularity of IG link landing pages that host relevant links to the last few pieces of content mentioned on a brand’s feed, and “link in bio” posts that help direct audiences to those links.
Additionally, keep your username as search-friendly as possible, which usually means sticking close to your actual brand name. If your business name is longer, shorten it to something your audience would recognize. Don’t add numbers or special characters to your username, and if possible keep it in-line with other social media handles you already have.
2. Keep a consistent content calendar
The worst thing you can do when trying to get followers on Instagram is to post content at random, haphazard times. If you’re lucky enough to get users following you in the beginning, you don’t want to make them forget they followed you in the first place.
To combat this, keep to a regular posting schedule. Typically, brands shouldn’t post more than a few times a day to avoid spam, but whatever your cadence, keep it consistent. Approximately 200 million Instagram users log on daily, so to cast your net even wider, try publishing a few times throughout the entire day.
In fact, our very own research on the best times to post to Instagram pinpoints the top times to post for multiple industries, or you can follow our research of the best times across all topic areas below:
Sticking to a schedule will help you build a consistent experience for your followers and keep them in the know of your brand. But if you’re wondering how you’re going to remember to publish at these different times in the day, we’ve got you covered with Sprout’s scheduling and optimal times features–read on for more details.
3. Schedule Instagram posts in advance
While the Instagram algorithm has changed to show users more content they like, posting at the right times can still give your posts more visibility by increasing the overall engagement they receive.
There’s a lot your brand can do to raise visibility, and now with Sprout Social, scheduling Instagram content is one of them. With our newest tools, we can help your brand schedule content through an easy process.
By scheduling content in advance, your entire team can see campaigns and schedules more efficiently. It’s always smart to build out content in advance and with our Instagram scheduling tools, you can reach your audience and maintain a consistent flow of content at the same time.
You can also use Sprout’s patented ViralPost feature and let us do the work for you. ViralPost analyzes your own account’s engagement history and identifies the optimal times for you to post algorithmically.
Perfect your Instagram content plan with Sprout Social
In addition to scheduling a complete picture of your Instagram content calendar, Sprout offers even more features to perfect your brand’s feed.
Share IG-approved visuals with your team using our Asset Library, or test out our grid preview feature to make sure every aspect of your presence is true to your brand style.
Get a hands-on look at these features and more with a 30-day free trial of Sprout.
4. Get partners and brand advocates to post your content
When you’re learning how to get more Instagram followers, it’s important to know the value of your audience. The larger your follower count grows (organically), the more buyers and interested customers you will have.
The best way to get customers to follow you is to get in front of them and be present. It’s critical to be present on your own Instagram as well as others. Try sponsoring user-generated content to get your brand in customers’ feeds. You can also hold Instagram contests to get your brand
out to a larger audience. These types of campaigns build social proof by showing your fans are invested enough to repost your content or create their own UGC.
Another way is to get your handle in front of a much larger audience. Try to work with larger Instagram accounts in your industry, like notable influencers in your space, to share your content to their audience.
Just make sure you’re providing something of value. The last thing you want to do is seem too salesy. Find marketing collaborations and co-marketing plans with other businesses to build your Instagram audience.
5. Avoid fake Instagram followers
There’s a huge difference between an Instagram account having fake and legitimate followers. It might seem tempting to simply purchase Instagram followers, but the backlash outweighs the perks of organic follower growth.
Fake Instagram followers tend to:
- Deceive new followers: If users come to an inactive Instagram feed with tens of thousands of followers, it will lower the account’s credibility. Don’t trick people into following you. Build trust and long-lasting relationships for better engagement.
- Have no ROI: It might seem easier to buy followers, but your acquired bot or unmanned new followers won’t be purchasing anything. People follow brands on Instagram for a reason–they like what you’re posting or your company in general. These are actual spenders and bring monetary value to your business.
- Create little-to-no buzz: If you have 10,000 fake followers, how many are going to comment, like and share your content? More than likely, these bot or fake accounts will be cleaned up by Instagram, deleted and make your posts seem like engagement graveyards.
Real people have the ability to share, like, comment and engage with your Instagram posts. Additionally, these users enjoy when there’s someone on the other side responding.
For example, Lush Cosmetics takes the time to answer various product questions, which results in users coming back, following or possibly sharing with others. These interactions will always have more value than a set of inactive followers.
6. Find your brand voice and create unique content
People don’t follow your business on social media so they can see sales pitches. They follow your brand because they enjoy your personality and the content you create.
What works for one business might not suit your branding—even when you’re in similar industries. For example, Juggling Daisies Hobby Farm and Such and Such Farm both consider themselves to be unique farms. Juggling Daises is all about fun stories, cute photos, and wholesome content. Meanwhile, Such and Such Farm has a more rough-around-the-edges style that includes curse words and humor.
Ask yourself what you want your tone to be. Funny? Informative? Playful? Cynical? Your personality should also reflect what you’re passionate about. Such and Such Farm believes in sustainably grown produce, so many of their Instagram posts talk about their farming practices. What topics do you address with your Instagram content? Everything you share on your business account should show off your brand’s personality and beliefs.
.7. Write great captions
Nice photos catch people’s attention—great Instagram captions keep it. Captions give you a chance to provide more context or details about the photo or video you’re sharing. Plus, using keywords in captions can help you appear in search results on the app.
Instagram captions can be up to 2,200 characters. Of course, not every caption needs to read like a blog post. Play around with different lengths. Some photos pair nicely with a short, quippy caption with a couple of emojis, while others might benefit from something longer and more reflective.
The average length of Instagram captions is on the rise, but most brands still don’t go anywhere near that 2,200 character limit. In 2020, the average was projected to be 405 characters, up from 142 in 2016.
8. Research and use hashtags
We’ve explored hashtags a lot on the blog, but it seems that nowhere on social media are they quite as important as on Instagram. The right hashtags can expose your image to a large and targeted audience, and Instagram users don’t seem to get hashtag fatigue in the same way they might on other networks.
Start by finding hashtags that would appeal to your target audience. Free Instagram tools like Display Purposes and AutoHash help you find relevant hashtags for your Instagram posts. For instance, with Display Purposes, you simply type in a few words about your image, and it will recommend the top hashtags to use.
If you want to gain more Instagram followers, hashtags are essential. Using hashtags makes your content discoverable via search or filtering when people tap on the same hashtag from another post. People can even follow their favorite hashtags so that top content with that hashtag will show up in their Instagram timeline.
Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post, but don’t tack on extras just to hit 30. TrackMaven recommends nine hashtags for maximum engagement. Just make sure you don’t use the same nine hashtags over and over again. Instead, group your go-to hashtags by category so you can quickly add a few relevant hashtags to each post.
With Buffer Hashtag Manager, you can create and save groups of hashtags. Then, you can select from your pre-saved groups and add hashtags to your scheduled Instagram posts.
9. Engage with your audience
Engagement is crucial for growth on Instagram. Many brands make the mistake of focusing on likes and comments without considering the people behind those metrics. If you really want to get more Instagram followers, you need to engage your fans in a conversation.
Keep in mind that just because someone sees your content, that doesn’t mean they currently follow you. If you have a chance to interact with a potential follower, you should take it. Every comment is an opportunity to gain a new follower (or keep a current one), so make sure you respond to each comment you receive. If your hands are already cramping at the thought of tapping away on your phone, don’t worry. With the Buffer Engage tool, you can reply to comments from your desktop.
But don’t just wait for your followers to start the conversation. Create engagement opportunities. Use Instagram stickers such as open-ended questions and polls in Instagram Stories. Ask questions in your photo captions. Encourage people to tag friends in the comments with prompts such as “Tag your BFF who you’d invite on this cruise!” or “Tag your wine-loving friend who you’d do this wine tasting with.”
Need more ideas? Take a look at our Instagram engagement tips to learn how to get more followers on Instagram by increasing engagement.
10. Collaborate with others
Another great way to gain Instagram followers is to collaborate with others through partnerships or influencer campaigns.
Our brand spotlight with Blume is a great example. Blume gets access to Buffer’s followers through the original Instagram Story and the accompanying Highlights. Meanwhile, Blume will share the spotlight with their fans, which brings their audience to Buffer. It’s a win-win.
Influencer marketing is another way to grow your Instagram following. If you have the budget, you can pay content creators to promote your brand. But if you’re hoping to keep it simple (and low-budget), micro-influencers (1,000–10,000 followers) can be very impactful. In fact, content from micro-influencers has higher engagement rates than content from larger accounts. You can seek out micro-influencers to set up collaborations or simply re-share user-generated content (UGC).
Remember those branded hashtags we talked about in Section 1: Optimize your bio? One tap on your branded hashtag, and you’ll have an entire catalog of content to choose from.
When we first launched Buffer’s Instagram, we encouraged fans to use #BufferStories and #BufferCommunity. We used those hashtags to find and re-share user-generated content. Within one year, we increased our Instagram followers from 4,250 to 21,000.
Why is UGC so popular? "It relays authentic experiences about a brand’s products or services from previous customers, which boosts brand credibility," says Ramon Berrios of Trend.
Collaborations are also a chance to show off your values and personality through association. The businesses and people you align with and support say a lot about your own brand. Partnerships can be especially powerful for local businesses, too. Consider partnering with your neighbors so you can reach a hyper-targeted audience.
11. Link to your Instagram from elsewhere
Make it easy for people to find your Instagram. No one should have to hunt through pages of your website to find your Instagram profile.
Add your Instagram account link to:
- Email footers
- Your website’s footer and/or sidebar
- Bios on other social media platforms
- Social media posts from team members
12. Analyze your results
One way to figure out how to get more followers on Instagram is to look into what your current fans respond to. You can monitor several Instagram metrics directly in the app with Instagram Insights or through third-party analytics tools such as Buffer.
Don’t obsess over vanity metrics such as likes and comments. Instead, think about what the metrics tell you. For example, if you’re testing out a new hashtag, metrics such as new followers and reach will tell you more about the value of that hashtag than likes from your current followers will. However, if you’re experimenting with different posting times, impressions can give you an idea of when your content is most likely to be seen. Your end goal will determine which metrics matter the most.
Watch for trends. Does a specific type of image get more impressions or engagement? Post more of those images and see how your followers respond. Do certain hashtags result in more likes from people who don’t follow you? Use those hashtags more often and keep an eye on new followers.
Read our Instagram Analytics guide to learn more about Instagram metrics and how to use them to fuel your marketing strategy.
0 Comments
Post a Comment